The Council of Multiple Listing Services (CMLS) claims around 230 members—MLSs ranging in size from a couple hundred to over 100,000 members. As many in real estate are quick to point out, each serves a unique geography, and often has different structures, resources and goals—both a unique boon and a huge pitfall in the face…
Open Real Estate, the national initiative launched by big brokerage leaders last week that has promised to create a shared “infrastructure” for property listing data, today announced it has received 826 letters of support from real estate brokerage leaders. Behind the strength—and size—of its four founding brokerages (HomeServices of America, AGNT, Keller Williams and Real…
Three separate federal lawsuits involving Compass and seven different MLSs are now making their way through the (often slow-moving) civil litigation process, marking a clear new level of conflict between incumbents defending long-running industry practices and deep-pocketed disruptors with new priorities. The confrontation comes after more than a year of fast-escalating tensions, in which the…
A third MLS today publicly rejected threats from Compass over listing rules, as New York-based OneKey MLS joined CRMLS in California and Unlock MLS in Texas in refusing to change policies despite significant back-channel pressure and legal threats from the mega-brokerage. In a release early this morning, OneKey CEO Richard Haggerty said the MLS would…
Editor’s note: The COURT REPORT is RISMedia’s weekly look at current and upcoming lawsuits, investigations and other legal developments around real estate. After defeat in Zillow injunction, Compass wants judge to distinguish MLS power In two major legal battles over private listings, Compass is seemingly seeking to draw a distinction between listing service market power…
In a relatively short time, the power dynamics in residential real estate have shifted dramatically. The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) sits alongside portal giant Zillow on one side, and on the other is New York-based venture capital-backed Compass, a new behemoth that has consolidated a huge brokerage empire and appears ready to use its…